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The Negative Effects Of Beauty Pageants

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Beauty Pageants are an important part of the American culture in the 21st century. Many women, including small children, strut down the runway, dressing up in fancy clothes and makeup and charm, with the only and clear intention of catching the judges eye. Many claim that beauty pageants are a harmless activity that contestants can get a boost of confidence from. However, the sad reality of beauty pageants sends the message that women, even girls as young as 1 year olds, should be valued for judges for their appearance, and gives unrealistic beauty standards. With shows like Toddlers and Tiaras, young girls are facing harsh realities of adults choosing which child is the prettiest, the most charming. Many now wonder if competing in beauty pageants adversely affect a child’s development. Beauty pageants deprive children of their confidence and childhoods because they lower girls self esteem, they force children to look and …show more content…

Beauty Pageants deprive children of their confidence and childhoods because they lower girls self esteem. In today 's society, many magazines, movies, and runways pressure women to look a certain way, and to act a certain way. Young girls, even girls as young as one years old, can be affected by today’s obsession with fitness and perfection. These girls can take drastic measures to change what they look like, even going as far as starving themselves (Freymark 29). Beauty pageants are notorious for highlighting outward looks,and to many girls who believe that they are not beautiful enough, being judged on one 's appearance can cause a devastating blow to a girl’s confidence. In fact, Freymark states in her article “ Let the Girls

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Skip Hollandsworth’s “Toddlers in Tiaras” argues the negative effects of participating in beauty pageants for young girls. Hollandsworth supported his argument through the use of the following techniques: narratives, testimonies, logical reasoning, appeals to emotion, facts, and an objective tone that attempts to give him credibility. These techniques are used to help persuade his audience of the exploitation of young girls in beauty pageants and the negative effects that pageants will have on their lives. Hollandsworth begins his article with how a typical beauty pageant runs and describes the multiple steps Eden Wood, a pageant contestant, goes through in order to get ready for a competition (490).

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It was stated that most of the parents who enter these competitions have modest incomes. With that in mind, “Some of these families spend $75,000 a year on pageants; they could do a lot more in terms of expanding their daughters’ sense of possibilities with that money.” These are the words of journalist and author of Cinderella Ate My Daughter, Peggy Orenstein (¶ 35), who believes that pageants take away opportunities from the

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The Pageant Underbelly - An Analysis of “Toddlers in Tiaras” Skip Hollandsworth, American author, and journalist wrote the article “Toddlers in Tiaras” in 2011. This analysis of the children’s pageant world covers different facets of the toxic environment that these children inhabit and the harrowing effects it has on them. Hollandsworth cites scientific papers and uses personal stories to convey his messages on child sexualization, neuroticism in children, and the aforementioned detrimental effects of the pageants. Through breakdowns of statistics and scientific evidence regarding costs and developmental issues, Hollandsworth aims to bring the audience to the conclusion that they should not raise their daughters as pageant stars or anywhere

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879 Words | 4 Pages

Girls are beginning to see a deep gender bias from very young ages. The media perpetuates this bias by editing women to be inhumanly perfect. Advertising is set around people’s insecurities. This is giving girls the idea that the only thing that matters about them is the way they look and how men perceive them. Women are said to spend more money on beauty than they do on their own education (Netflix).

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Such glamour doesn 't come cheap. According to Dorothy Poteat, director of Southern Elite Pageants based in Chapel Hill, N.C., the very low end of the spectrum is between $400 to $500, minimum, per glitz pageant. The midrange is $1,500, but she 's seen parents drop $3,500 or more in preparations for one big day. The reason the price tag can become so heavy is the gear. "With glitz, anything goes," says Poteat. "

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The topic of self confidence is a subject that is heavily discussed when it comes to girls of all ages. Journalist, Stephanie Hanes, examines the current trend of sexualization amongst young girls. In the article “Little Girls or Little Women: The Disney Princess Effect”, Hanes examines the current trend of sexualization amongst girls. She addresses the issue of desiring to become a women too soon. Hanes develops her article by using the literary techniques of pathos and logos to describe the emotions young girls feel when they see images of women with unattainable features.

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Growing up as a little girl, surrounded by Barbie Dolls, dresses, and piggy-tails, sparked my interest in becoming a princess. I grew up an only child, without any older sisters to teach me how to apply make-up correctly or braid my hair for me. I learned everything by myself, using the auspicious approach of trial and error. After entering middle school, I quickly realized my archetypical goal was not exactly realistic. Although dismayed, I was not discouraged, nor were my interests in cosmetics altered.

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Whether it be in the workplace or walking down the street there is always going to be more pressure and judgment being focused on women than men. Why is this? Gender plays a big role on the reflection of our identities to society. We have been brought to believe that there are certain ways men and women should and should not act, dress and talk. These social norms do not just apply to what is acceptable in regards to public safety but rather, it is used as a way to control and evaluate behavior.

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People of all ages throughout the years are very familiar with the concept of Disney movies. Some notable classics of Disney are “Beauty and the Beast” which was released in 1991 and “The Little Mermaid” which was released in 1989. Among the children, the Disney princesses left a good impression on them like Cinderella from “Cinderella”, Pocahontas from “Pocahontas”, and Mulan from “Mulan”. However, many believe that Disney movies serve as a good influence to young audiences but people should know that Disney also has its flaws. Disney have showed negative portrayals of Disney princesses in their films especially when it comes to their usual unattainable beauty ideal and portraying their princesses as inferior to men.

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“These children may struggle with ideas of perfection, eating disorders, and body image in their adulthood. Pageants send a message that looks and appearance are more important than brains and education.” (Children Beauty Give Children Unrealistic Expectations) Children will struggle with their body images and most importantly, they will put appearance first that education. “Additionally, dressing children up with adult clothes and makeup appeals to sexual predators, placing them at risk of falling victim to a pedophile.”

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This activity is considered as one of the growing businesses in America which earned over 5 billion dollars every year (Lindsey, 2013). These beauty pageants will sometimes cause parents to abuse their children without knowing it. The Children may be forced to join the contest and they will be taught some kind of bad life lessons. So, the four main reasons why child beauty pageants are harmful are: Firstly, child beauty pageants may lead to overconfident. Children which participate in child beauty pageants normally told by their parents or people around them that they are beautiful, charming, talented, more special than others to let them be more confident during the contest.

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754 Words | 4 Pages

The media portrays these unrealistic standards to men and women of how women should look, which suggests that their natural face is not good enough. Unrealistic standards for beauty created by the media is detrimental to girls’ self-esteem because it makes women feel constant external pressure to achieve the “ideal look”, which indicates that their natural appearance is inadequate. There has been an increasing number of women that are dissatisfied with themselves due to constant external pressure to look perfect. YWCA’s “Beauty at Any Cost” discusses this in their article saying that, “The pressure to achieve unrealistic physical beauty is an undercurrent in the lives of virtually all women in the United States, and its steady drumbeat is wreaking havoc on women in ways that far exceed the bounds of their physical selves” (YWCA).

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807 Words | 4 Pages

Growing up, most female contestants are affected their whole lives. How often would one see a young pageant contestant that is not only focused on how she looks and how she acts. Child beauty pageants should be banned because their teaching young children to focus on beauty and attitude more than their education, their taking away their childhood, and it can lead to abuse. Beauty Pageants teach young children that their beauty is more important than their education. Beauty pageants make young female children feel like they need to focus more on their beauty and attitudes more than their education.

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800 Words | 4 Pages

So when people look and see that they don’t look like they’re favorite super-model it can put a downer on their self-confidence. This causes many girls feeling that they aren’t good enough in society, society won’t accept them because they aren’t perfect and they start to not like their body. When for many females they can’t lose as much weight as their friend can just because of their genes and how they were born. “The lack of connection between the real and ideal perception of their own body and firm willingness to modify their own body and shape so as to standardize them to social concept of thinness…” (Dixit 1), being focused on unrealistic expectations can cause women to lose themselves and change their attitude on how they view their body, and not for the better.

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841 Words | 4 Pages

Meaghan Ramsey's TED Talk "Why thinking you're ugly is bad for you" is a powerful speech about low body confidence. Ramsey talks about how society's pressure to be perfect is one of the main reason for young girls' (and boys') low body confidence and how these feelings of low esteem can impact their lives and futures. I chose to analyze this speech because I have experienced low body confidence and I have felt those feelings of low self-esteem. In Meaghan Ramsey's speech "Why thinking you're ugly is bad for you", she discusses how low body confidence is undermining academic achievement, damaging health, and limiting the economic potential of today's youth who are growing up in a world of social media. Ramsey has a strong start to her speech, using a photo and a story about her niece to gain the attention of the audience.

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